UNISON research into zero hours contracts shows that more than 40% of care workers are on these contracts. Activists are reporting that more employers are using zero hours contracts more widely across the NHS. This also includes operational service staff. Zero hours contracts are imbalanced and the employer reaps all the benefits. Members are asked […]
Conference motions
Our NHS is facing the biggest threats in its 65 year history. The impact of the Health and Social Care Act is being felt across all four countries and austerity measures, reorganisations, funding cuts and freezes that are being imposed by the Westminster Government has led to increasing fragmentation of health services. Since 2013 when […]
Conference notes that many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) housing problems are related to sexual orientation or gender identity. Increasingly, more LGBT people are having to rent their homes from a private landlord, because of the lack of council houses, social rented accommodation and other affordable housing, or the housing and local allocations policies […]
Conference notes that: 1) Since 2010 the government has imposed a £2.6 billion reduction in social care funding which has had a devastating impact on home care services; 2) As local authority’s budgets have been squeezed they have used competitive tendering to drive down the costs and standards of home care; 3) A recent UNISON […]
UNISON has long been concerned with inadequate staffing levels on hospital wards leading to compromised patient care. This was borne out in the Francis Inquiry and Keogh reports. The shortages of Registered Nursing Staff, appropriate skill mix and overall staffing levels to carry out the fundamental care of patients is now at crisis levels. Despite […]
Conference believes that since the election of the Tory-led coalition, the remit issued by the Government to the Pay Review Body (PRB) each year has been so restrictive as to remove any genuinely independent process from establishing NHS Pay. In effect each of the remits has purely asked the PRB to recommend how the Government’s […]
Conference notes that on 7 May 2015 a new government will be elected in Westminster. Whatever its political make-up, there will be repercussions for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. As evidenced by the LGBT group’s research on the impact of austerity, four years of Conservative-led government have seen LGBT workers’ pay fall in […]
Conference notes that the European Union (EU) and the United States have started negotiations on a new trade agreement, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which could serve as a model for all future trade agreements. Conference further notes that the TTIP will not just remove trade tariffs but will also: harmonise regulatory standards; […]
Conference notes that employers have increasingly been turning to zero hour contracts, as part of the general attack on staff terms and conditions that has accompanied the intensification of privatisation and cuts to funding across the public services. Zero hour contracts are where an individual is not guaranteed work and is paid only for the […]
Conference proposes that UNISON campaigns to bring front line ambulance workers pension retirement age in line with other emergency workers. Front line ambulance staff are soon to be expected to work until they are 67 years old, this is unrealistic bearing in mind the arduous and unpredictable nature of the work. Shift work and long […]
We congratulate UNISON for the work it has done after the publication of the Francis Public Inquiry into care failings at Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust. It is essential that we continue to prioritise the Be Safe training. We are encouraged that a small number of branches have volunteered to act as early implementer sites to […]
Conference notes with alarm that the downbanding of NHS workers’, jobs has increased nationwide as more and more Trusts come under financial pressure. The downbandings may take place under the guise of service or skill mix reviews but in reality they are most likely to result in workers doing the same job for less pay. […]
Conference notes with concern the negative impact job re-design and privatisation is having on career pathways in the ambulance service. The increased use of private ambulance companies in the provision of patient transport services (PTS) has seen significant numbers of UNISON members being transferred outside of the NHS. Not only does this represent a threat […]
HCAs feel undervalued and under the spotlight. HCAs perform one of the most important caring roles; they provide the frontline fundamentals of care, including bathing, helping vulnerable people to eat and go to the bathroom with dignity. Statistics show that HCAs and other support worker roles deliver up to 60% of direct patient care and […]
Both the UK government and all devolved governments in the UK have a statutory duty to promote equality of opportunity. Most recently the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) concluded that the UK Government had failed to take steps to ensure that there was even application of equality requirements. Agenda for […]